A former Royal Marine, who had child porn pictures downloaded from the internet at his Otterton home, tried to destroy the evidence when police turned up on his doorstep.

A former Royal Marine, who had child porn pictures downloaded from the internet at his Otterton home, tried to destroy the evidence when police turned up on his doorstep.Exeter Crown Court heard 60-year-old Gary Littlefair pretended to be unwell and said he needed to go to the bathroom.Prosecutor Martin Kenny said, far from being ill, Littlefair was making a desperate bid to destroy the compact discs containing porn pictures by snapping them into pieces and throwing them out of the window.The prosecutor said Littlefair managed to destroy three discs with some of the pictures on them after officers arrived to raid his home in Fore Street.Littlefair told police he had been suffering from depression, which was first triggered by his traumatic experiences on duty in Northern Ireland.Mr Kenny said the raid on the defendant's home took place in July, 2007."He feigned illness and said he felt unwell, holding his stomach, and saying he needed to go to the toilet," said Mr Kenny. "What he'd been doing was snapping the CDs into pieces and throwing them out of the bathroom window."The court heard his computer was seized by police and, when it was forensically examined by a specialist unit, it was revealed he had downloaded 63 images at "level one", which is the least offensive, four at "level two", two at "level three" and three at "level four" in the five categories of seriousness.Defence counsel Kelly Scrivener said Littlefair had begun looking at indecent images of children after stumbling upon them while looking at legal, adult sites. He was remorseful and some of his family, including his wife, were supporting him, but they did not condone his actions.Littlefair pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing indecent images of children, one of distributing indecent images of children and one of perverting the course of justice. He was given a 24-week prison sentence suspended for two years, coupled with a two-year supervision order.Passing sentence, Judge Paul Darlow told Littlefair he was being made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order and was also to sign on the Sex Offenders' Register indefinitely.